


There's No Place Like

by Merfilly



Category: Magnum P.I. (1980)
Genre: Homecoming, M/M, Post-Canon, Yuletide, Yuletide 2011
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-01
Updated: 2011-12-01
Packaged: 2017-10-26 18:19:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/286450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's just after the Gulf War, and a sailor breezes back into Higgins life, but he knows there's more than smooth sailing at work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There's No Place Like

**Author's Note:**

  * For [galerian_ash](https://archiveofourown.org/users/galerian_ash/gifts).



There was never a question of sneaking past the lads. Such an effort would only have served to rile them up, and make the meeting tenser and sharper than it needed to be. The temptation, though, was there, and Thomas had to stifle it as a part of a younger man's life. He waited, at the gates, while Zeus and Apollo looked up at him, ears erect and tails out straight, not wagging.

"Higgins," he said into the comm box on the gates, one more time. "Unless you want me to tranquilize the walking appetites, I suggest you open the gate for me."

"Lay one finger on the lads, and I will protest in full umbrage to the commander of your vessel. And to your admiralty, for setting loose such a barbarian once more on these pleasant shores." The voice issued forth from the box with all the prudish, stuck-up, snobbish tones Thomas could remember.

As the gates opened, he locked the feeling of homecoming into his soul and drove the rental through the gap as soon as it was wide enough.

Unsurprisingly, Higgins was waiting as he parked the car just outside the main doors, nose wrinkling at the mundane nature of the Peugeot that had been Thomas's only choice at the rental agency outside of an old Beetle.

"It was all they had," Thomas immediately defended himself before Higgins could say a word. A single eyebrow arched in retort, before Higgins turned to lead the way into the house.

"Perhaps I should have made arrangement to have you delivered here, rather than subject the garage to such indignity."

"Har har har," Thomas mocked at that, never once questioning just how much better he felt now that he was here, indulging in school-ground nonsense with this man once again.

"Rather more to the serious point, Magnum, what does bring you here to spend your liberty?" Higgins questioned as they made their way to a parlor room. Higgins sat in the elegant wingback closer to the never-used fireplace, while Thomas dropped down on the couch, long legs sprawled out in front of him. He was so glad he had resorted to jeans and a luau shirt as soon as he was officially on leave from his ship; this would be more awkward if his uniform was reminding him of the improbability of why he had come back.

"Higgins, it's Lily."

The majordomo of the estate looked at him sharply. "The child is not in trouble? Nothing wrong with her health or safety?"

Thomas ducked his head, shaking it, a smile coming to his lips. 'Same old Higgins' was a phrase that filtered through, but he kept it off his face by the time he looked up, just letting the smile add assurance to his words. "No. She's got it in her head that she wants us to live here, to give her a better chance at getting into school here in a few years."

"Dear heavens why?" Higgins asked. "I could arrange for her to attend a proper school, after all. Her grades in school have all been quite admirable, unless she has acquired your propensity for exaggeration in her letters."

"Oh you'd just love that, wouldn't you? Lording it up by convincing her to go off to some ritzy school halfway around the world from me?!" Thomas exploded, reacting without thought to what he could hear in those words. Nothing American would be good enough to compare with what Higgins could provide!

"Actually, I thought it might offer you some comfort, as it would break any trail she still might have to the troubled past," Higgins cited in his unflappable manner, completely taking the wind out of Thomas's sails. "After all, you're often halfway around the world from her, since the war broke out and put you back to sea."

Thomas felt the bone lodge in his throat, the one that choked him on his pride constantly, but he had to say it. "I'm being discharged." There was silence for a long moment, while Higgins digested that fact, and Thomas tried to find the rest of his words. "I finished the war still on Gulf duty, as Lily probably told you. Now, with a draw down in force size, my age, the campaigns I've already served through… They're putting me out to pasture, Higgins!"

"It's always been my thought that sailors were moored in dry-dock, not turned loose to frolic in the meadows," Higgins retorted dryly. That earned him a glare from Thomas before the American pushed back and lounged despondently against the couch-back. "Magnum, it seems that you coming here must have more of a purpose than strictly the wishes of a child concerning a particular university. You never have been particularly adept at the purloined letter method of hiding your motivations, contrary to your own thoughts on the matter."

"You know Lily's welfare means everything to me now!" Thomas protested.

"Indeed it does. However, I am reminded of a time when a chap I knew, on an indefinite furlough decided the best cure for his own uneasy future was to ask after his sister's wishes on how life should go. It wasn't that he did not truly care for her welfare, but that he had no facility for taking on the unknown of his own life outside the confines of what he had known before. By casting the decision into his relation's hands, he was absolved of the unknown, for the time being, without truly solving his problem, for he could not merely live her life as his own."

Thomas stared at him, aware that, once again, Higgins behaving strictly as Higgins always did had done much to push him toward a decision that was likely less risky than he might have made on his own. "You're saying that I'm going to end up right where I was when we first met, if I just look at this through Lily's eyes and wishes."

"Perhaps, though I will strive to prevent you from once more taking indefinite residence in the guest house, Magnum. I could not bear to put that strain on my duties here once more," Higgins said in a perfectly even tone.

Thomas laughed at that. "You missed me, and you know it!"

"Improbable at best."

"You'd really make me try to find decent housing for Lily on my pension?" Thomas baited the man, eyes gleaming with the sheer peace he felt as he began planning. Not just for Lily, but for himself, he could honestly admit. There was nothing in Detroit to go home to, not when he was brutally honest with himself. He did not want to retire near Annapolis or Norfolk or D.C. He wanted to come home… and that meant here.

"Magnum, it is deplorable to use the child as leverage in your mercenary bargaining," Higgins informed him.

"So that means we're moving in as soon as the papers are signed?" Thomas pressed.

"Only until she is in school. Then you will find other lodging!"

The protest was aired, and Thomas smiled, nodding, even as both men knew that the future would see more arguments, more bartering, and Thomas staying on as the nominal head of security for the estate.

It was the way of their relationship.


End file.
